Houston Rockets: XXL Interviews Chandler Parsons

Credit: Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

Hip-Hop magazine XXL interviewed the Houston Rockets forward Chandler Parsons about basketball, Dwight Howard, and his love for Hip-Hop. Surprising takeaways, were Parsons love for Mysitkal, and DMX when he was growing up in Florida. Not a surprise is his love for Drake, who is loved by every NBA player. An excerpt of the interview is below:

via XXL & Emmanuel C.M. (@ECM_LP)

What is your favorite album of all time?
The Chronic definitely my favorite of all time. I just liked it. There’s a lot of Eminem and I just thought the songs were great. I got [MMLP2] downloaded onto the computer. I can’t wait for it to come out. I’ve always have been a big fan of his. I’ve always been into hip-hop just cause I played, like, travel baseball and AAU basketball. So I always listened to hip-hop before games to get me into the right mind state. I would say probably age 12, maybe 11 [I started listening]. I listened to everything back in the day, like Diddy, DMX, Mystikal, Mobb Deep, everything.

How far do you see the Rockets going this season?
I think we have a great chance, we have had an unbelievable preseason and everybody got better. The chemistry on the team is so good. Everybody is gelling so quick and so fast right now that I think we’re just as good as anyone out there. I know it’s just preseason but we beat Memphis easily, we beat San Antonio easily and we didn’t even play in the second half with these types of teams. Obviously it’s different when the lights are on and it’s the regular season. But we’d be selling ourselves short if we didn’t think we couldn’t win a championship. We’re not just playing with each other because we have to. Everybody is friends, everyone is similar in age, everyone enjoys each other. Dwight [Howard] is so outgoing and personable that everyone attracts to him.

Is Houston’s starting 5 one of the best in the league?
Yeah, and I think our bench is very underrated; depending who starts at the point, you either having Pat Beverly or Jeremy Lin off the bench. We pretty much have two starting point guards, so we can’t lose there. Francisco Garcia is a knock down shooter. Greg Smith, Omer Asik are great bigs coming off the bench. Omri Casspi I feel like is going to have a great year playing the four with mismatches. Our starting 5 is great with me and the best shooting guard in the league and the best center in the league, we’re going to be every talented. But I think our bench is just as good as anyone in the league.

You are the longest tenured Rocket right now. Are you the leader of the team?
Yeah, I’m definitely the leader of the team. It’s not going to take one individual, it’s going to be everyone, but as far as every time we get new guys, I’m telling them what spots are around town, where to live. On the court, just knowing the system, I’ve been around coach McHale the longest here so if any questions that these guys have I’m a good resource that’s been that for two years now.